Genesis 38:30 names him as a son of Tamar by Yehudah, her father-in-law; the twin of Parets.
Like Kayin and Havel, Yishma-El and Yitschak, Esav and Ya'akov, Menasheh and Parets, and in a slightly different form Re'u-Ven, Ya'akov's first-born, Zerach is another example of the first-born son being supplanted by the second-born, which is a portrait of ultimogeniture in the Biblical world, itself a consequence of the ancient custom of sacrificing the first-born. These tales appear to replace "sacrifice" with "supplantation", but in either form the first-born does not inherit. In later Judaism, the first-born was once again granted the right to inherit, and the Pidyon ha-Ben introduced as an alternative means of "redeeming" the sacrifice. I am unable to offer more on the subject than this, as it has either been scrupulously avoided, or simply not noticed, by scholars across the ages, religious and secular, and so there is nowhere that I can send you to read more.
A previous Zerach is mentioned in Genesis 36:17, "And these are the Beney Re'u-El, Esav's son; Chief Nachat, Chief Zerach, Chief Shamah, Chief Mizah. These are the chiefs who came out of Re'u-El in the land of Edom. These are the Beney Basmat eshet Esav (the sons of Basmat the wife of Esau)"; which latter statement makes them a matrilocal tribe, which would have practised ultimogeniture; hugely significant that in the light of Ya'akov "stealing" Esav's birthright.
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